Thiruvananthapuram: CPI leader Binoy Viswam has defended the demolition of a cross on Pappathichola near Munnar by the district administration, saying that the cross belonged to the affluent and not to the Christ. The former minister's comment was an apparent response to a Catholic priest’s question if the destruction of the cross was the policy of the ruling Left Democratic Front.

Did the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council want to protect the encroachers under the shadow of a cross, Viswam wondered aloud on a social media post. "Is leading encroachments in the spirit of Jesus? The cross on Pappathichola did not belong to the Christ, but the rich," he wrote.

Viswam said the people believed that the Christians' common stand in the issue was that expressed by Archbishop Susai Pakiam, Coorilos Metropolitan and the spokesmen of the Syro-Malabar Church. Even Pope Francis had called Earth as our home and taken a stand against those who aligned themselves with encroachers, he said.

The cross erected by rich encroachers on Pappathichola was not the same as that Jesus carried to the Golgotha. The LDF government was following Jesus’ advice to evict those who polluted the church, Viswam said.